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The Power and the Fury, or the Politics of Representation in Drama

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Ruling Women, Volume 2

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Abstract

In a sketched typology of characters who appears in classical tragedy,” as he refers to it, Jacques Truchet identifies that of the “inflexible and cruel old queen,” to whom, he maintains, writers of tragedy were particularly attracted.1 Leaving aside the problematic notion of character “type,” Truchet’s observation provides a fruitful point of access into the dramatic representation of the female sovereign of the period. Examination of a wide corpus reveals Truchet’s aging intransigent queen to be one manifestation of a larger assembly of ruling women, 2 and points therefore to a broader phenomenon: namely the frequency with which dramatists in seeking to create the world of disorder so central to tragedy and tragicomedy,3 chose to exploit (and, I would argue, hence propagate) the well-worn association of women, power and disorder—a constant in Western thought and one firmly embedded in the legal and political discourses of the Early Modern period.

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Notes

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Conroy, D. (2016). The Power and the Fury, or the Politics of Representation in Drama. In: Ruling Women, Volume 2. Queenship and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137568489_2

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